Motorola Xoom Teardown

Teardown

The Motorola Xoom is the first android tablet powered by Google's newest OS, Android 3.0 "Honeycomb." Follow along as we peek inside this scrumptious (see what we did there...) device and devour all the delicious bits of information we can gather.

The Xoom features a 5 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front-facing camera. At least for now, Motorola's got Apple clocked in the tablet camera arena.

A dummy SIM card is included in the Xoom, with the inscription "Replace with SIM only after 4G upgrade."

Verizon's 4G LTE network requires a SIM card, so not every Verizon device will have 4G. Right now the list of compatible devices is very short: the Motorola Xoom and the still-unreleased HTC Thunderbolt.

Two T5 Torx screws located near the Micro USB and Micro-HDMI ports secure the rear case to the Xoom.

Like a sliding glass door, the rear case slides off part way, and we get our first peek at what makes this tablet tick.

Major props to Motorola here. For the first time we didn't need any prying tools to get into a tablet.

Unfortunately, the rear panel of the Xoom will only slide so far until two catch clips impede our progress. At this point what appears to be the Wi-Fi module can easily be removed. This card will probably be replaced should you ever choose to send your Xoom to Motorola for a 4G LTE upgrade.

There are 17 [!] screws holding the front panel to the magnesium framework.

We didn't explicitly test the metallurgical nature of the framework, but we are pretty sure it's magnesium.

After a little bit of prying, the front panel separates from the rest of the display assembly -- a refreshing change from some other populardevices. Although to be completely fair, Apple's iPad also doesn't have an LCD fused to the front glass.

Two T5 Torx screws located near the Micro USB and Micro-HDMI ports secure the rear case to the Xoom

I messed up by attempting to place the sd card in not realizing that there was a dummy. The SD card fell somewhere inside. I attempted to remove the case using the T5 screwdriver but the the screws don't turn. Have you encountered that problem? Must I use more pressure? nabarnes@aol.com. Thanks

I'd be very curious to see how much the weight of the Xoom could be reduced by carefully reviewing the mounting points pictured and then drilling a lot of holes in it metal. Probably safe the assume the majority of the weight is battery and metal housing.

Just bought a digitizer replacement from China, and they don't include the bezel that it glues too. How do they suppose you get the bezel unglued? If you do manage to get them apart without breaking it, how do they suppose you glue them together??? Waste of $40??

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